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Hello world. I live and so does this blog despite what you may have been led to believe. I fixed my wifi access problems by moving so here is to a bright future for women in sci-fi! You’ll have to forgive me because I am a little hopped up on spiced rum and Dr. Pepper zero. I am feeling all warm and fuzzy and extremely positive about everything. Go me!

I extend the open call hand again. Please, pretty please. If you have read a science fiction (see the about page) book written by a woman published since 1999 and would like to review, good or bad, (you didn’t have to like it just don’t be nasty) we’re accepting submissions. A few people have contacted me over the past few months to submit reviews, but I never heard back from them. Please get in touch if this is you.

A discussion topic: not just women who write science fiction, but women who appear in science fiction. Something struck me the other day when reading “Intrusion” by Ken McLeod on my Kobo:his female characters in this particular novel are better than in his previous novel. Now, I’ve only read four (including Intrusion) novels by Ken so I am not a McLeod expert. I only know that even though I did like Restoration Game there was something odd about the lead character who was a woman. I struggled to imagine her as a woman. In fact I thought of her as a man for quite sometime until she suddenly put on a dress and painted her nails. Of course she could have been transgendered or a transvestite, but this was not evident anywhere so I had to assume it was a woman after all.

I wanted to acknowledge Ken’s women this time round because they feel much more like ‘women’. This got me thinking (dangerous). Shouldn’t this blog not only discuss women who write science fiction, but the representation of women in science fiction? Shouldn’t we acknowledge men who write women well and cast a Spock like eye brow in the direction of those who do not? Then all the other questions came to me: what do I mean by represent Women well? Who defines this? Do I define this? to me a Mary Sue character is not evidence of a good female character, but sometimes Mary Sues are favoured by readers. When we say a ‘strong’ female character, what do mean? Is she a warrior or does she simply not back down from her moral conviction? Is she ballsy and brassy? or is she a wife and mother who strands strong against adversity and protects her family? Maybe she is all of these.